Silent Hill: Phantoms
by PuzzlePrince
Summary: Run, run, as fast as you can, but this town yearns for you, and it isn't going to let you go.
1. Chapter 1

His back hurt.

He had done nothing prior to waking to cause it to hurt, so he couldn't fathom why it hurt as if he had fallen and landed on it. Speaking of landing, what was he lying on? He hadn't been lying on anything prior to waking either, and this certainly wasn't his bed. Too cold, too hard, with no soft silken blanket. Tiny little rocks dug into his shoulder blades as he shuffled his limbs and a breeze chilled the bare skin of his face, prompting him to slowly open his eyes and look up into a sky dotted with patches of dark grey. There wasn't a hint of blue to be seen past the clouds.

Still in the process of waking, he slid up to his elbows and looked to either side of him. One side was a vast plain of fog, but the other revealed a short rusting rail, beyond which were still grey waters. He pushed himself to his knees to better survey his surroundings, his expression steadily becoming one of apprehension. He didn't know where he was, he didn't know how he had gotten here, and that was a bad combination, even if it wasn't one he had actually encountered before. If he could just recall what he had been doing before waking here…

Aha! He snapped his fingers, rising to his feet. He'd secured Dani's trust. Momentarily, at least; Daniel had apparently had a little pep talk with her before she was due to sacrifice herself for his whims. His attempted clone had destabilized and melted before his eyes, provoking a murderous rage. And then… ah, right. He'd lost. Slammed into his equipment by a rogue vehicle and then punched into unconsciousness by Dani. One of Danny's comrades had wrapped the Specter Deflector around his waist at first opportunity, so he hadn't been able to defend himself. After his last encounter with the Specter Deflector, he'd already figured out how to remove it, so he'd driven home through the fog to retrieve the required equipment and—

And he'd woken up here.

Without the Specter Deflector, he noted.

A frown creased his brow. That didn't tell him anything, except perhaps that he had been in an accident. He didn't feel as if he had been in an accident, though. There was no evidence of injury except for his sore back, and there was a distinct lack of broken vehicle on the road he had awoken. There was no vehicles at all, in fact. Not a single one behind or ahead or in what little of the distance he could see. It was slightly nerve-wracking to realize he couldn't hear anything either. Other than his own shallow breathing, nothing. Not even the sound of the wind.

"This is ridiculous," he said, just to make some noise. He didn't like how eerily quiet it was, and he was unusually grateful for the gravel crunching underfoot as he made his way towards the vague outline of a building. Maybe he'd be able to find some town residents willing to lend him use of their phone. Or if not that, at least figure out where he was.

It was out of fear of being observed from the shadows that he didn't turn into Plasmius and simply fly to the building. For all he knew, this was a set-up by speculators to catch a transformation on camera and present it to the world. He took this opportunity to feel himself up and down, checking his pockets to see if anything had been thieved. His wallet hadn't been touched, thankfully, though he couldn't find his cell phone or car keys.

When he finally reached the building, it was a relief. He felt as if he'd been walking for far longer than was reasonable. He stepped up to it, regarding its decrepit appearance with a look of distaste. It was clearly your standard neighborhood house, but a heavily neglected one. He circled around to the windows and they were too dusty on both the inside and out for him to make out anything more than a few indiscernible blobs. There was a gentle flickering coming from far within the room he was looking into, so he knew the place had to be inhabited. Perhaps by a homeless man, or someone living government paycheck to government paycheck, impervious to the disgust of their neighbors. It was with this in mind that Vlad stomped around to the front door to knock. He spied a graveyard in the distance, heavily shrouded in fog, but paid it no mind; houses near graveyards ought to have been the cheapest on the market. No wonder this lowlife was occupying one.

"Hello?" He rapped his knuckles on the surprisingly sturdy door. He'd expected it to rattle, but it held steady against his knocking. "I'm after a phone, or the name of this town. Either one will do." He paused to allow an answer, but none came. "Hello? This is Vlad Masters. You might have heard of me. I can offer a generous 'thank you' if you help me."

Again, no answers. Vlad could feel himself bristling, tempted to turn intangible and demand answers from the house occupant.

"Look, if you don't answer me right now—!"

"You shouldn't be doing that."

Vlad almost dove out of his skin. Or, more accurately, he dove into the door, smacking his chin on the wood in his desperation to escape whoever had spoken to him.

"Oh, oh fudge buckets." He grimaced as he wrenched himself away from the door and around to face his unexpected (and frankly, unwanted) company. What sort of maniac went around scaring the wits out of people with unconventional greetings during this sort of ominous weather? He'd been about ready to float through the door in his fright.

"Sorry," the person belatedly amended. He'd expected a thuggish looking teenager. Instead, he was presented with a pretty young lady who had beautiful, curly light blue hair that gathered around her shoulders and such pretty hazel eyes. He wasn't usually one for atypical hair colours, but this woman exuded appeal.

Vlad smiled one of his broad, charming smiles. "It's quite alright, my dear. I was just going to inquire after the name of this town, but now that you're here…"

"Oh, this is Silent Hill." She returned the smile, hers being significantly more pleasant. "It's pretty deserted, though. I'm just here to take photos."

So he'd wandered into an uninhabited (for the most part) town. Figures.

"Are you sure it's deserted?" He glanced back to the house, specifically at the window, squinting in as best he could. He was sure he'd seen a light.

"Yeah, absolutely deserted. Except for you and I and maaaybe a few stragglers." Her hair cascaded over his collarbones as she tilted her head in a display of puppy-like curiosity. "Why?"

"Oh, I thought I'd seen someone in the window, is all." It was possible he'd seen a reflection in the window, dirty though it was. Or maybe it had been a product of his paranoia. It wouldn't be the first time he'd seen things in the dark that weren't actually there. It'd happen to him quite often in his youth, while he was getting used to being half ghost.

The lady had turned to look at the window as well. "Do you want to go inside and check?"

Was that a hint of exploratory excitement in her voice? Vlad's smile drooped into something almost fond. "I'm sure there are more interesting things for you to be doing. It is just a house, after all." And it would probably be an absolute disaster to traverse. "I'm Vlad Masters, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasures all mine," the woman replied, extending a hand. "I'm Renee."

"Renee," Vlad repeated thoughtfully. A lovely name for a lovely woman. He grasped the proffered hand, giving it a gentle shake. "Well, Renee, would it be at all possible for me to borrow your cell phone?"

"Of course, Mr. Masters."

Mr. Masters. Immediate respect. Oh, he liked that.

She delved into her back pocket to retrieve the phone, passing it over once it was found. With a grateful smile, Vlad flipped it open and pressed in the number for the Fenton household. He held it up against his ear to listen to it ring with some relief. For a moment there, he'd though he would have to play investigator with no Watson to provide helpful, as well as _unhelpful_ commentary; Danny wasn't exactly 'detective assistant' material, being fourteen and all, but he would have to do.

Renee gave him his privacy by leaving to meander through the graveyard. He watched her tire of walking and seat herself on one of the tombstones while the ringing continued, going on and on, longer than he thought it possible for a phone to ring without being transferred to voice mail.

And then, the sound ceased. There was distant shallow breathing on the other line.

"Jack?" he asked slowly, wondering if the lumbering oaf of a man had managed to knock the phone off its receiver while flailing around with one of his inventions. There was a whispered response, unintelligible. He pressed the phone harder against his ear in a hopeless attempt to decipher what was being said to him.

"Jack? Daniel? Maddie?" There may have been some trouble taking place in the Fenton household, as it so often did, but it couldn't be worse than his own situation. He sounded especially exasperated as he spoke again, "Jasmine? Daniel? Pick up the phone, for goodness sake!"

A high pitched electronic screech abruptly overlapped the heavy breathing, eliciting a startled yelp from Vlad. He almost dropped the phone, catching it against his jaw just before it fell. The screech had ceased by the time he had pressed the phone back against his ear, replaced by the steady beep, beep, beep of a phone off the hook. Funny, he hadn't thought cell phones could do that. When he drew the phone away from his ear to press redial, he noticed an absence of bars beneath the little 'signal' in the corner of the screen.

Renee had returned, reaching out to touch his elbow in concern. He gave a little jump when she did. "Mr. Masters? Vlad? Are you okay?"

"Just— just fine, yes." Shaken, but fine. He closed the phone and returned it to her. "I was unable to make my call for help. Bad signal."

Renee lifted a shoulder in a shrug. "Yeah, I thought that might be the case. This place is pretty far off the map."

At least one of them seemed to be aware of their location in relation to geographics. He stepped off the porch of the house and into the yellowed grass that surrounded the graveyard. "I called to Amity Park. Is this far from there?"

"Amity Park…" her lips pouted out as she thumbed through her memory bank. "…Doesn't ring a bell. I don't even think I've heard of the place."

"Really?" Well, that was surprising. He'd thought it would become a worldwide sensation after the discovery of Danny Phantom. "You aren't privy to the 'Danny Phantom' phenomenon?"

"Danny Phantom?" she repeated, sounding incredulous. "What's that, a superhero name? Sounds ridiculous."

Vlad couldn't prevent the wide, toothy smile that broke out over his face. "I rather like you, Renee, enough that I'm willing to have you be my escort." He set the tips of his fingers together. "Would you kindly lead me to the exit? Or, if that isn't advisable, a map that will assist me in finding my way home would also be acceptable."

"Sorry my GPS isn't accessible. That would be a lot easier than finding a map." Renee worried her bottom lip with her teeth. "There's probably one in the town center you could use. No one has ransacked this place because of all the 'hauntings' it's presumed to have."

Hauntings, huh? Nothing Vlad hadn't seen on a daily basis, as well as participated in. "Utter nonsense." He set a hand on her upper back to get them moving along. "Lead the way, my dear."

"It's not the way you're trying to lead me, for starters." Most people would have found his coercion rude, but Renee only laughed, ducking away so she could gesture him in the right direction. "The road's just up here." Her thin fingers found his forearm to help him along. "If all else fails, we could always take my boat back to civilization! It's a days ride, but I should have enough in stock to feed and hydrate two people."

Already Vlad was starting to feel a little better about his predicament. He gave the window one last glance, trying to squint past the glass, before shaking his head and allowing himself to be directed towards the heart of the town.


	2. Chapter 2

The roads of Silent Hill were heavily obscured by a thickening blanket of fog, rendering them labyrinthine in complexity, and Vlad suspected they would have been impossible to navigate without his knowledgeable guide, who escorted him through the town as if she were native to it. Being spectral in nature, he was accustomed to these sorts of settings. There were corners of the ghost zone completely empty save for thousands and thousands of doors, some that led to dark, vacant rooms full of unearthly decay. It was some of those rooms that had led him to acquire the books in his library.

Silent Hill wasn't so unlike those places. Decaying, devoid of human life, silent save for the slap of shoes traveling over gravel. It was a beat in his ears that drowned out the great big nothing he could otherwise hear. He took relief in it; he'd never been able to handle those desolate rooms as well as he had convinced himself. The emptiness had been thick and suffocating in a way only the anomalous depths of the ghost zone could achieve, and that had always frightened him.

Their travels brought them to a tavern, creatively named 'Silent Hill Tavern'. With its solid metal doors, it didn't look very inviting, but Renee approached it with a degree of familiarity that had him throwing his caution to the wind; perhaps she was detouring for some photography. Despite how unnerving the town was, he didn't mind the wait; she was leading him home out of the goodness of her heart, after all.

"Hey, could you wait out here?" she asked, and Vlad stopped, startled.

"Must I?" 'Outside' was shrouded in fog. Even with his supernatural eyes, he wasn't able to penetrate it. He didn't like to be out in the open on his own when he couldn't see his surroundings. He didn't even like to be out in the open _with _someone when he couldn't see his surroundings.

Renee shuffled self-consciously. "I'm just going to the bathroom. I'll be right back, okay?" she arched her eyebrows sympathetically. "It's not that I don't trust you, but these walls are practically see-through thanks to deterioration and I'm an easy one to embarrass."

That did make more sense than the photography. "Alright, dear," he said with audible reluctance. "I'll be waiting—" he sidestepped to stand against a crumbling brick wall. "Right here when you're finished."

"Thanks." The doors barely resisted being pulled open, much to Vlad's surprise. They fell shut behind Renee just as smoothly. He watched the doors quietly for a moment, before turning to gaze across the street. There was a partially obscured street lamp just before a footpath, and not much more than that. The rest was too far out to be seen.

He folded his arms across his chest and bundled up his shoulders, shivering in short bursts. Living in Wisconsin in a massive castle had often subjected him to very cold mornings, and he had never been fond of them, always dressing himself from head to toe in thick cloth. Short-sleeved shirts were an irregularity.

In his peripheral vision, he spotted a shadow shifting among the fog. He turned his head towards it and watched it make a slow, lumbering approach. It was humanoid, body size appropriate for that of an adolescent. However, it had no hair, veins engorged on its unusually large bald head, and he couldn't see its face beneath a gas mask constructed of rusting metal. The clothes it wore were contrary to the rest of its appearance, dapper blacks and blues of a middle school uniform. A long-armed jacket reached past emaciated hips, a pristine dress shirt beneath it, and shorts came up to knobby knees, with long white socks not far beneath them.

Vlad wasn't immediately sure what to make of the creature. It could hardly inflict harm, could it? This small child in a gas mask looked barely able to hold itself up. It was quite a sight to behold, though, and he had no desire to be near it. He moved to the door as it came closer, twisting at a handle that wouldn't give despite how hard he pulled. He tugged, he yanked, throwing himself back in order to put his whole body into the motion, and it still resisted its efforts.

Stubby, thickly veined fingers grasped at his pant leg. A gurgling sound accompanied the loose embrace, pressed out through rusted filters. Vlad's heart jumped into his throat in alarm and he kicked the child away with a bewildered yelp, throwing himself up against the door in a display of fear he hadn't made since encountering Pariah. The child merely stumbled and fell flat on its back, still producing those horrible low gurgling sounds as it lay there, struggling to align its limbs in such a manner to enable it to stand. There were thin lines of drool gathering beneath the mask, dripping down to its chin and throat. No blood, so Vlad couldn't have injured it too terribly.

"Don't get up," Vlad warned. His breath was starting to accelerate, hitching in his throat. "Stay where you are."

It didn't obey his command. Wobbling unsteadily to its feet, it began a slow meander back the way it had come, bent over in the place Vlad had struck it. Once it had become nothing but a thin, angular shadow swaying in the fog, Vlad relaxed enough to resume struggling with the door. He knocked heavily to no response. Swallowing down his panic, he turned intangible just long enough to enter the building, pressing himself against the door to be certain he wouldn't be attacked the moment he appeared within the doorway.

"Renee?" he called, quietly at first, before getting steadily louder in volume. "Renee? Renee! Something strange is going on!"

A distant thump jostled his composure. He squeaked, nearly phasing his way back out through the door.

The blue hair of his escort came bobbing into view shortly after.

"How in the world did you get in here?" Renee asked, perplexed. "I thought I locked the door."

Vlad inhaled slowly to calm himself enough not to blurt out something incriminating. "I managed to unlock it. I was – frightened, you see." Another deep breath, and he synthesized a smile. "There was a child outside. Bald, with a gas mask. But I feel a great deal better now that you're here."

Renee did that involuntary head-tilt thing of hers. "Uh, that's… weird." She arched an eyebrow. "Some kid deliberately freaking you out, you think?"

"You said this place was deserted." And he wasn't sure how a child would have managed to deceive a man who regularly interacted with the subnormal.

Renee shrugged. "I did say there were some stragglers."

"Stragglers?" He barely bit back a scoff. "It was a child in a gas mask. What sort of stragglers are we referring to here?"

"Not pleasant ones. I've heard this place used to be home to a cult." Another shrug. "Or something like that. I haven't really had the chance to read up the history."

"Why choose this town to explore, then?" Vlad asked, a hint of suspicion in his tone.

"It's beautiful!" Renee exclaimed, before withdrawing in apparent shame. She shuffled her feet. "I know it sounds ridiculous, but I love exploring abandoned places, buildings especially. This is the first town I've ever been close enough to to explore, though. It's my long weekend at work, so I decided I had to come here while I had the chance."

"I see." Vlad's doubt had been retracted. "That isn't an unusual hobby, where I come from, though there is significantly more 'ghost hunting' involved these days."

Renee's smile turned sheepish. "Oh, I don't do the 'ghost hunting' part. It sounds fun, sure, but I have little interest in actually pursuing it as a hobby."

"That's very…" Vlad paused. "Reasonable."

"That's not how most people would describe it," Renee laughed.

"I imagine not," Vlad replied. "But I do still have doubts about the origin of that boy."

"You think it's more likely it was a ghost?"

In fact, he did, but Vlad forced a chuckle. "That does sound preposterous." He glanced wearily over his shoulder at the door, still locked. "Perhaps you're right."

"There's no 'perhaps' about it," Renee said. Her hand found his forearm, squeezing reassuringly. "Even if there does happen to be ghosts or a cult or whatnot, you're a big, strong man, hm? You'll have no trouble fighting them off for the both of us."

"I…" He'd never actually had someone compliment him so overtly before. He worked his jaw uselessly for a moment, before turning around to unlock the door. "No, I shouldn't have any trouble."

Was it normal for a forty year old man to fluster at such attentions? He'd been fixated on Maddie for so long that he'd never had time for other women. Frankly, he still didn't. Renee was a lovely girl, but she was still a means to an end and he would ditch her the moment he was able. He had no interest in pursuing friendship, or a relationship, even if she did.

The door lock was heavy and sturdy, it didn't look like something that could be knocked open. He looked back at Renee, who seemed oblivious to this fact.

"Sorry," she suddenly blurted out. "Did I make you uncomfortable?"

Vlad quickly re-directed his gaze back to the door. "No, not at all. I, ah, I just… I'm something of a widower." In a manner of speaking. Maddie was still alive, but she _had_ been unjustly taken from him. "It's a little unusual for me to be receiving attention from another woman."

"Oh. I'm sorry," Renee mumbled. She followed Vlad as he exited the building.

"It's quite alright. You weren't aware." And neither was Maddie, honestly. She'd be slapping him into oblivion if she knew what he had said (which, if he was honest with himself, only made him more attracted to her). He fixed his rumbled dress shirt and blazer jacket and returned to the foggy streets, standing where he had last seen the lumbering childs shadow. As expected, and vaguely hoped, there was no sign of it in his immediate vicinity.

"It's gone," he stated, setting his hands on his hips.

"Did you want to get back on track, then?" Renee asked tentatively. She looked around, appearing nervous. "The City Hall isn't much further from here."

Vlad's mouth crept up into a smirk. "Feeling a little less confident now that you're out in the open, are we?" Vlad would by lying if he said he wasn't pleased by the display. He didn't want to be the only one fretting about bald children wearing gas masks.

Renee scoffed. "Psh, no. You're projecting." She gave him a playful slap on the upper arm and began a very, very slow walk down the street. Slow enough that Vlad suspected she didn't want to be walking even briefly on her lonesome in this weather.

With a quiet chuckle and smile, he followed, catching up to her with ease.


End file.
